The REAL Reason You Shouldn’t Eat at Chick-Fil-A

Jesus wouldn’t eat there

It’s a fast-food chain. By nature, that means cheap food, quickly processed, probably in less than ideal conditions. Cheap food isn’t good for you and it doesn’t taste good either.

Yet, drive by any Chick-Fil-A restaurant (using that term loosely) and you’ll see cars in the drive-through lanes wrapped around the building, spilling into the adjacent parking lots and streets. Chick-Fil-A hires drive-through attendants to step into the parking lot to take your order before you reach the window so they can keep the lines moving.

Honestly, it’s fast-food chicken sandwiches, waffle fries, and chicken nuggets — there is no way it’s that good, right? Some — who support the owners of Chic-Fil-A based on their religious beliefs — will tell you it’s “God’s blessing” on the business. Others refer to the basic sandwiches and tasteless fries as “The Lord’s food.” I think they only half jest.

But I can assure you that Jesus wouldn’t eat at Chick-Fil-A and that if you think their food is amazing you’re simply being fooled.

A few years ago I had to get in on this amazing fast food and see for myself why it was so attractive to the masses that they would stand in long lines for a cheap chicken sandwich (my kids included).

I ordered the chicken nuggets and, as sure as I was set up for, I couldn’t stop eating them. Yum, yum, yum, my brain was saying as I stuffed nugget after nugget down as fast as I could.

When I almost exclaimed, These are the best chicken nuggets I’ve ever tasted, my rational brain took over. Mary, how can these possibly be the best nuggets in the world? Think. Look closely. See that orange coating?

Bingo. The deception of Chick-Fil-A was revealed. The orange coating is MSG (not The Message Bible translation) and I can assure you this crap is not the Lord’s food.

MSG stands for monosodium glutamate. I’m sure you’ve all heard of it but most people have grown so accustomed to it as a flavor enhancer they think it is benign and harmless.

What is MSG and why is it bad?

I tossed the remainder of the nuggets in the garbage and went home to await my fate. I knew from brutal experience that any amount of MSG would trigger a severe migraine within a few hours and I could only hope I had stopped consuming the nuggets in time to escape a trip to the emergency room.

It was bad. An afternoon of vomiting, shaking, and lying in the dark with the relentless pounding caused me to curse Chick-Fil-A and pray for the Lord’s wrath on their establishment. I toyed with going to the ER but the idea of standing up, walking to the car, and sitting in the car made me sicker, so I rode it out.

Once I recovered, I looked up the ingredients in the Chick-Fil-A nuggets to confirm what I already knew: Chicken (boneless, skinless chicken breast filet, seasoning [salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, spices, paprika]…

There’s more so you can click on the link to see the rest of the “healthy, fresh ingredients” but you can see that MSG is right there as part of their seasoning. With that knowledge, I knew I would never eat at Chick-Fil-A again.

But, recently I found myself on the moon — I mean west Texas — where food options were limited. I reasoned that I could try the grilled chicken because that was not coated in the breading made with MSG, but just to be safe I asked for a printout of ingredients at the register.

Here is where the MSG sneaks in again: Chicken (boneless skinless chicken breast [water, apple cider vinegar, soybean oil, modified corn starch, salt, yeast extract… Again there is more so click on the link to see but I’ll stop at yeast extract. Yeast extract is another fancy (or devilish) way of disguising MSG.

Yeast extract contains glutamates, which are forms of an amino acid that are found naturally in many foods. They’re sometimes extracted and used as additives to prepared food. This product is commonly known as monosodium glutamate (MSG). Yeast extract contains naturally occurring glutamates, but not as much as MSG. — Healthline.com

So what’s the big deal? You don’t get migraines, why should you stop eating there?

You may be experiencing reactions, short term and/or long term, from MSG and yeast extract and not even know it!

Migraines plague our society and are now ranked as the 3rd most prevalent illness in the world. It’s a big deal for a lot of people and you might know some of them. Do they eat at Chick-Fil-A or other fast food establishments like Whataburger (Texas, you know what I mean) and then often complain of bad headaches or feeling ill or experiencing a migraine a few hours later?

MSG is bad for a lot of people and it’s terrible for children. Since Jesus loves the little children, I’m confident he wouldn’t eat at Chick-Fil-A.

Consider these facts about MSG.

MSG (and yeast extract) is a flavor enhancer that tricks your brain into thinking that the bland or average food you are eating is really, really good. Ahem…reality check, everyone — fast-food chicken is not good — it’s the MSG that is tricking your brain into thinking it is! Is it any wonder it is so prevalent and liberally used in junk food (Doritos) and fast food chains?

MSG stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin even when you may not be consuming enough carbohydrates for your body to call upon all that insulin. Is type 2 diabetes rampant in modern society — hello? What abuse to one’s body!

The body also changes excess glutamate to GABA, which may be addictive. Did you ever open a bag of Doritos and not be able to stop eating until the entire bag was gone and you still wanted more? You can thank MSG for that. Surely the “Lord’s food” would not cause addiction, am I right?

MSG is a nervous system stimulant called an excitotoxin that, despite approval from the FDA, is directly linked to obesity and diabetes. But come on, we should know by now we can’t trust the FDA to regulate our food, so please don’t take this as a pass to consume MSG.

MSG has also been shown to impact children and adults with asthma, allergies, food intolerances, digestive issues, migraines, hypertension, and depression. I can raise my hand to attest to this and I bet you can too. Why not try keeping a food diary and see if when you eat at Chick-Fil-A any of your conditions worsen or symptoms seem to appear out of nowhere?

So now that you know the secret behind the long lines at Chick-Fil-A and why so many Americans seem to literally be addicted to their food, what do you think? Does it bother you? Will you still keep eating there even though the food is not as good as you’ve been tricked into thinking?

Will you petition Chick-Fil-A to get rid of these flavor enhancers, and more importantly, if their food is so good why do they need flavor enhancers that fool you? Hmmm…deception, trickery, unhealthy food that causes chronic illness, it all sounds like the devil’s work to me.

I’m Mary, living a simple life which includes simple food (read the ingredients and if you can’t pronounce them, don’t buy it) saying things that people don’t like to hear, and writing about faith, life, and everything that intersects both.

You can also follow me on Instagram or find more help for living simply and reducing stress on my website.